NOTE: This spoiler was sent in by wide eyed15 who admits..."I only understood about 20% of this film, so here goes nothing..."

The Bourne Identity starts off observing a drunken crew at sea on a rickety fishing boat. During a horrible storm, one of the sailors sees a man (Matt Damon) floating in the ocean. After pulling him aboard, they first think he's dead, but then realize he still breathing.

A doctor, or at least one of them with some medical experience, tears open the man's wet suit to find two bullet holes in his back. He removes the bullet and while examining the man, notices an odd scar on his hip. Beneath the scar is something that looks a little bit like a laser pen, and when you shine the laser on the wall, a bank address and account number shows up.

The doctor leaves to get some tools, but when he comes back, the unamed man has regained consciousness and starts fighting. The doctor calms him down, but the man doesn't remember anything about who he was.

The man helps out on the deck while waiting for the crew to land. He can speak a dozen languages, is familiar with tying complex sailors knots, and knows a lot of karate type moves, but still doesn't remember who he is or his past.

A friendly guy on the boat gives him enough money to get him to Switzerland, where he promptly goes. After a mild run-in with the police about sleeping in the park, he uses the bank account number that was implanted into his hip and recovers an odd safety deposit box. In the box is his ID, which tells him that his name is Jason Bourne and that he lives in Paris. What is a little more confusing, however, is that he has several foreign passports, a couple different alter-egos identifications, a gun, and a TRUCKLOAD of money. He dumps everything in a red bag and leaves.

Not soon after he leaves, he realizes he is being followed, so he quickly goes into a US Embassy building, where only American Citizens are allowed. That's where he meets Marie (Franke Potente), a girl who's having a few annoying problems with the embassy and her student visa.With the men still chasing him, Bourne offers Marie ten thousand dollars to drive him to Paris, and another ten thousand when they arrive. She reluctantly accepts.

While they are driving, Bourne has these horrible headaches and says he can't sleep. He confides to Marie that he has amnesia and can't remember anything about who he is or why people might be chasing him. They stop to eat at a small diner. Marie kind of believes he's just a little paranoid, but Bourne says something to the effect that there are three exits that he knows of, "the waitress is left-handed, the man at the counter weighs 215 pounds and can hold his own in a fight, the best place to find a gun is in the back trunk of the grey pick-up outside, and at this altitude and climate I can run for about half a mile before my hands start to shake." Then he wants to know why a normal, every day guy would know those kind of things.

Marie and Bourne go back to his place in Paris, where Bourne finds out that his alter-ego, Kane, is dead. An assasin also leaps through a window and tries to kill Bourne, but Bourne defeats him and the assasin ends up jumping out a window.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Bourne was working for the CIA. It was a foolish mission that wasn't supposed to be attempted, but Bourne's maniac boss had him try it. Bourne was supposed to assasinate a man, Wombosi, who was going to write a book about the CIA and all the corruption within it. Bourne was supposed to hide out on Wombosi's personal yacht until the time was right to kill him. The mission had failed. Bourne was shot in the back twice and pushed off into the sea where the crew found him. Now, the head honchos at CIA want to know who was responsible for such a foolish mission. Bourne's boss, Ted Conklin, wants Bourne dead in order to cover his tracks.

Back to Bourne, who is reading through a lot of newspapers, trying to sort things out. Wombosi is shot by an unknown assasin (someone who will probably show up in the sequels) He reads an article written before Wombosi's death that says Wombosi claimed someone tried to assinate him, but he shot the man twice in the back and threw him overboard. It's then that Bourne and Marie realize the he's an assasin.

Bourne continues to kill off the guys that Cronklin keeps sending to try to kill him. He and Marie have changed their appearences, and everywhere they go, they wipe down what they touch so they leave no finger prints.Finally, it just gets too dangerous, and Bourne tells Marie she has to leave where no one can find her. He tells her no friends, and no family and she has to go far away. She reluctantly obeys.

He follows the spy team to a run down motel of sorts and finds Cronklin and his little sidekick. He asks Cronklin questions about who he is and what he was supposed to do. Cronklin doesn't believe he has amnesia, and reminds him that the whole mission to kill Wombosi was his idea. It's then that Bourne remembers he had Wombosi at gun point. Wombosi had been watching TV with his back to him when Bourne came up from behind him. Just as he pointed the gun at him, he saw a little girl. Wombosi's sleeping children were right there, and his little girl was just looking at him innocently, not knowing why he would want to kill her father.

Bourne puts away his gun and tells Cronklin he doesn't want to do this anymore, but Cronklin says it's not his decision. Bourne punches him a few times and then guns down the rest of the spy team.

Cronklin stumbles out of the motel. Another one of Cronklin's assasins that we are led to believe is trying to kill Bourne, leaps out of a car and shoots Cronklin instead.

The movie ends with our seeing Marie at her little flower shop and scooter-rental store somewhere next to the ocean. A man comes up from behind her and comments on how difficult the store is to find. It's Bourne. They kiss and the film ends.

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